Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Yair Netanyahu Goes AWOL

Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, wanted to pop home for Shabbat dinner with his family. So that is just what he did. The only problem was that Yair is an IDF soldier, and he did not have permission to do so.

Now, Yair is serving a 21-day military detention for his impulsive move. The punishment is not only for going AWOL — with two bodyguards in tow — but also for lying to his superior about his whereabouts.

It seems that when reporters were getting no answer at the IDF Spokesperson’s Office’s international desk, where the younger Netanyahu serves, they contacted the officer in charge. The officer called Netanyahu, who did not pick up his phone, but who did text the officer saying he had gone out for food.

There’s going out for food and then there’s going out for food at your parents’ Shabbat table for several hours without permission to leave your base. It looks like Yair is going to have a few long weeks to ponder that difference.

There’s been no public comment from mom and dad, who are probably far less overjoyed now about their son’s surprise visit than they were when he showed up at home last Friday.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version